Corrective Action 101- Key Terms

Community Involvement: The EPA's effort to establish
two-way communication with the public to create understanding of EPA programs
and related actions, to ensure public input into decision-making processes
related to affected communities, and to make certain that the Agency is aware
of and responsive to public concerns.

Conceptual Site Model: A conceptual site model is a
three-dimensional picture of site conditions that coveys what is known or
suspected about the sources, releases and release mechanisms, contaminant fate
and transport, exposure pathways, potential receptors, and risks. The
conceptual site model is based on the information available at any given point
in time and will evolve as more information becomes
available.

Corrective Action Authorization: EPA's authorization of
a State Corrective Action Program is based on a determination that the State is
capable of implementing corrective action equivalently to EPA, and in a manner
consistent with applicable Federal statutes, regulations and guidance.

Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU): An area
within a facility that is used only for managing remediation wastes for
implementing corrective action or cleanup at the facility.

Corrective Action Program: Accidents or other
activities at facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous
wastes have sometimes led to the release of hazardous waste or
hazardous constituents into soil, ground water, surface water,
or air. Prior to the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA),
cleanup of such releases focused primarily on protecting groundwater
from
special
kinds
of RCRA-regulated
land disposal units that received hazardous wastes after July 1982.
HSWA made it clear that owners or operators of treatment, storage
or disposal (TSD) facilities are responsible for investigating
and, as necessary, cleaning up releases at or from their facilities,
regardless of when the releases occurred. EPA refers to this cleanup
of TSD facilities under these statutory authorities as RCRA Corrective
Action.

Data Quality Objectives (DQOs): Data Quality Objectives
(DQO) refers to the overall degree of data quality or uncertainty that a
decision maker is willing to accept for a decision. The DQO approach should
apply to the entire measurement system (e.g., sampling locations, methods of
collection and handling, field analysis, etc.), not just the laboratory
analytical operations.

Environmental Indicators (EIs):
Achieving the two environmental indicators-"Current Human Exposures Under
Control" and "Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control"-is the
near-term goal of the Corrective Action Program. EPA has identified 1,714
facilities (called the RCRA Cleanup Baseline) that warrant attention in the
near-term. By 2005, the Agency expects human exposures to be under control at
95% of these facilities and migration of contaminated groundwater to be under
control at 70% of these facilities.

Facility: All contiguous land, and structures, other
appurtenances, and improvements on the land, used for treating, storing, or
disposing of hazardous waste. A facility may consist of several treatment,
storage, or disposal operational units (e.g., one or more landfills, surface
impoundments, or combinations of them).

Final Remedies: The long-term goal of the Corrective
Action Program is to achieve final cleanups that protect human health and the
environment, attain media cleanup objectives, and control the sources of
releases at all facilities.

Hazardous Wastes/ Hazardous Constituents: EPA
interprets "hazardous wastes" to include all wastes that are hazardous within
the statutory definition in RCRA Section 1004(5), not just those hazardous
wastes that are listed or identified by EPA pursuant to RCRA Section 3001.

Use of the term "hazardous constituents" is interpreted to indicate
that, within the broad category of wastes that might be "hazardous" under RCRA
Section 1004(5), corrective action should be focused on the specific subset of
"hazardous constituents." It also means that corrective action is not limited
to "hazardous wastes" but extends to hazardous constituents regardless of
whether they were derived from hazardous wastes. This means that hazardous
constituents that are (or were) contained in nonhazardous solid wastes are
subject to corrective action.

Initial Site Assessment: Information is gathered on
site conditions, releases, potential releases and exposure pathways to
determine whether a cleanup may be needed and to identify areas of potential
concern. Facility owners/operators may gather this information and submit it to
EPA or a State for review. These assessments also confirm or reduce uncertainty
about solid waste management units that may require further investigation.

Media Cleanup Objectives: The concept of media cleanup
objectives includes three components: cleanup levels, the point of compliance,
and cleanup time frames.

The point of compliance refers to where a facility should
measure contaminant concentrations in environmental media and achieve
media-specific cleanup levels.

Cleanup time frames refer to both the schedule in which a
cleanup measure will be implemented and the estimated time in which remedy will
achieve cleanup levels.

Protect Human Health and the Environment: Protecting
human health and the environment is the mandate from the RCRA statute and
regulations, as well as being the mission of EPA. This goal is, therefore, the
most important standard for final RCRA Corrective Action remedies.

Regulated Unit: Regulated units are defined as surface
impoundments, waste piles, land treatment units, and landfills that received
hazardous waste after July 26, 1982.

Remediation Waste: All solid and hazardous wastes, and
all media (including groundwater, surface water, soils, and sediments) and
debris that contain listed hazardous wastes or that themselves exhibit a
hazardous characteristic and are managed for implementing cleanup.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA): RCRA is
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which was enacted by Congress in
1976 and in the subsequent Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984. RCRA's
primary goals are to protect human health and the environment from the
potential hazards of waste disposal, to conserve energy and natural resources,
to reduce the amount of waste generated, and to ensure that wastes are managed
in an environmentally sound manner. For a more in-depth overview of RCRA and
its programs, see the RCRA Orientation Manual.

Short-term Controls: Short-term controls are put into
place at a facility to prevent human exposures and to prevent further migration
of contaminated groundwater.

Site Characterization: Before cleanup decisions can be
made, some level of characterization is necessary to ascertain the nature and
extent of contamination at a site and to gather information necessary to
support selection and implementation of appropriate remedies. Tools to support
good site characterization include conceptual site models, innovative site
characterization technologies, tailored data quality objectives, and use of
existing information to streamline each investigation.

Solid Waste Management Units: Any discernible unit at
which solid wastes have been placed at any time, irrespective of whether the
unit was intended for the management of solid or hazardous waste. Such units
include any are at a facility at which solid wastes have been routinely and
systematically released.

Source Control: Source control refers to a range of
actions (e.g., removal, treatment in place, containment) designed to protect
human health and the environment by eliminating or minimizing migration of or
exposure to significant contamination.

Staging Pile: An accumulation of solid, non-flowing
remediation waste that is not a containment building and that is used only
during remedial operations for temporary storage at a facility. Staging piles
must be designated by EPA according to the requirements of
40 CFR 264.554.

Temporary Unit: For temporary tanks and container
storage areas used to treat or store hazardous remediation wastes during
remedial activities required under § 264.101 or RCRA 3008(h), or at a
permitted facility that is not subject to § 264.101, the Regional
Administrator may designate a unit at the facility, as a temporary unit. A
temporary unit must be located within the contiguous property under the control
of the owner/operator where the wastes to be managed in the temporary unit
originated. For temporary units, the Regional Administrator may replace the
design, operating, or closure standard applicable to these units with
alternative requirements which protect human health and the environment.